Intellectual Property Law

The 1998 Digital Millenium Copyright Act is a large step for intellectual property. The bill was signed into law by President Bill Clinton and attempts to protect copyright of various intellectual outlets. This law attempts to fight down piracy in the form of music, copyrighted materials (includes articles, feeds, clips) as well as movie and software. At the time of this implementation, the Internet wasn't as large or as powerful as it is today. However, this Act has had a large impact on the doings of many artists, writers and designers that publish on the Web.

According to San Diego Business Law Firm, intellectual property is.....

a creation of the intellect that has commercial value, including copyrighted property such as literary or artistic works, and ideational property, such as patents, appellations of origin, business methods, and industrial processes.

While this law helps to fight back, it doesn't protect the use of information within writing works, or the exploitation of such writing in any form. Plagiarism isn't mentioned and isn't protected in this Act. For journalists, this is crushing and very disturbing. Writers must be guaranteed protection of the work they create. The program that I have proposed that monitors use of the words or materials within one's articles and/or clips would do just that.

RECENT PLAGIARISM NEWS IN THE PAPERS

A mayorial candidate in Dallas, Darrell Jordan, has allegedly lifted entire sections of other people's work to create "The Darrell Jordan Crime Reduction Plan" and "The Darrell Jordan Accountability Pledge & Plan of Action." He claims he used other's ideas and incorporate successful ones into his own work.

However, a former U.S. representative from Colorado, Bob Beauprez, wrote a similar section and does not agree with his explanation. "Mr. Jordan's accountability pledge bears a remarkably strong resemblance to the accountability pledge I put forward last fall. You know what they say – imitation is the highest form of flattery."